SAM MAGALEFA
(PART 1)
Sammy, we haven’t caught up with you in a while. Where on earth have you been?
Ngisazivalele la e (I’m hiding here in) Kagiso, but I’ve been doing ‘up and down’ in Mafikeng as well. I’ve been busy with the Sam Magalefa Foundation. What we do, we donate school shoes to needy learners at schools. So, I’m doing provinces nowadays, having started out locally. I’ve done Limpopo, I’ve done North West, next year I’m doing Bloemfontein. So far, so good. The donations have been going so well. We’ve already donated more than 4 000 school shoes.
That’s awesome. Does that mean you are lost to football as we know a lot of players become disillusioned after retirement to a point where they want nothing to do with the game?
I’m out of football for almost six years. Yeah, man, football politics, yho! It’s too much, man. Other people are just there for money, not the love of football, and they are closing all the opportunities that we can use to help our juniors. I can tell you now, I’ve been sending CVs telling them ukuthi (that) I’ve got Sports Management, to show that I was prepared to work in football. I’ve done my Sports Management with Boston, I’ve done CAF B Licence. It tells you the direction I was taking, ukuthi (it was about) not just coaching but management of football. I didn’t even get a response. I’ve done it for almost two years and then I said hayi (no), let me leave these things of football. I had an academy that I was running, of Tsogo Sun, and the project was closed not because they were not doing well. It was closed because… errr… what can I say? I was creating opportunities for kids, so they had to sabotage it, to say, “No, we don’t need this thing.” That’s why I’m saying siphethwe ngabantu abangalithandi ibhola (we’re led by people who don’t love football). The academy was doing well, but they wanted to see it closed. They said they wanted to try out rugby, they’d been doing soccer for such a long time. Cabanga (Imagine)… that was the only reason. That is why I’m saying, in football, the people at the top are people who don’t love football. They love money. So, that is why the person had the audacity to tell me that, “We are closing football, we wanna go for rugby.” That means uhambela ini? Imali (why is he walking away? Because of money)! After that, I just decided that I’m out of football because now it seems that you are a threat to other people.
But also, it should speak to a lack of respect to a Sam Magalefa that has earned his stripes as a legend of the game… Exactly, Bra Lunga. That is why I didn’t wanna rely (on the fact) ukuthi I’ve played the game. I went to school to get Sports Management, I went to SAFA to get CAF B Licence. I didn’t rely on my name, but somebody doesn’t wanna give me a chance. So, I don’t have anything else to fight with now. I
The cheap use of the word ‘legend’ is an insult to those who, to this day, bear the emotional scars of playing pro football in an era when passion was the name of the game and yet the financial rewards were so laughably scant. That over the years we’ve been turned down by countless legends whose bitterness with how the game they gave so much to failed to return the favour, speaks volumes. And when we called in on Sam Magalefa last week Friday, nothing could have prepared us for the mind-blowing
conversation about the highs and lows of a career that began at Wits University in 1998, took him to SuperSport United and ended at Jomo Cosmos. No wonder his middle name is Job, he suffered so much. Admirably, though, he took it all in his stride. The next seven weeks will leave you heartbroken like a jilted lover, then giggling like you have no debit orders, and then shocked like you’ve been hit by Stage 8 loadshedding!
went to school and then got a certificate of coaching, I’ve played the game, but still I don’t qualify.
So, what more do you need to do? I need to know somebody. I have to suck up to somebody, to say, “Awungizame lapho (Please do me a favour)”, which is wrong. Because if you are coming
wena as Bra Lunga behind me, I will say, “Ey, Bra Lunga, there’s no space” because of that jealousy. If you want someone to beg you in order for you to give that person a job, then you don’t mean it. I’m supposed to come to Bra Lunga and say, “Bra Lunga, how busy are you? Are you still in football?” Then you say, “No, I can’t get a job.” I then tell you, “Okay, listen, you are going to start small. You’ll start here, we’ll monitor you.” That’s how we should be doing things, then we’d have a lot of coaches. We’d never have this problem of the PSL where coaches are being rotated. Today you are coaching Golden Arrows, kusasa sowuyi (tomorrow you are the) head coach ye (of) TS Galaxy. And nobody is saying anything! There should be a limit, a rule that says if you are fired for that season, you are not gonna work until the new season. Because now there are good coaches that I see
ku (at) Mvela (Motsepe Foundation Championship), but they will never get the opportunity in the PSL (topflight) because in the PSL they fire you now and the next day someone else comes in. How do you fire somebody today, Bra Lunga, on a Friday, and then on Monday he is working for a team he was playing against last week? South African football will never develop. It will never go anywhere. It’s unfortunate nje that I don’t have a platform to say it. I just wanted to say that, if bayang’zonda, bayang’zonda on themselves because they’ve achieved. It needs to be addressed this thing. We want 10 Pitsos (Mosimane), we want 15 Rhulanis (Mokwena), you understand? But we’ll never see them because they are rotating each other at the top. And Bra Lunga, our football is still going to die, asikaboni niks (we haven’t seen anything). There will come a time where even you as journalists are gonna get bored while you are at the stadium. It has already started, even when the derby is about to play, people don’t look forward (to it).
Mamelodi ance seems argument. They have not been playing the league, but no one has overtaken them. That is why I’m saying South African football izofa (will die) and by the time everyone wakes up, they will realise that there’s nothing we can do. I get so heartbroken and that’s why I don’t watch PSL games now. It’s either the team that scores first has won or it’s going to be a draw. You don’t get those 4-0s, 5-0s, 6-1s anymore. No, (only) 1-0, 2-1. Imagine, a big team like Kaizer Chiefs is struggling. I mean, guys, I don’t support Chiefs, but let me tell you
Sundowns’ dominto support your
one thing, if Chiefs keep playing like this, they are going to make the standard of our football drop. It’s a big brand Kaizer Chiefs. You know what, I’m one somebody… I don’t care how a person takes my view, but the purpose is not to hurt anyone. I’m talking football in general. Schools football… I’ve heard there’s going to be that project of Pitso, but he’s not going to be hands-on. That’s the mistake that they are doing, they think ukuthi if they give it to Pitso, he’s gonna rock up. No! It’s just for marketing purposes, he won’t be there and hands-on. Same people that have killed our football, they are gonna be officials under the new banner of Pitso. Not once have you heard that Danny Jordaan has called the management of each province to report to him why football has died.
Sure.
It will never happen until he goes out of office. I doubt there are reports from each province because if there were, we’d have long seen that football is dying. Intliziyo yami ib’hlungu kabi (My heart is in pain) maan, eish, and I become emotional when I talk about South African football. We can’t even beat Eswatini. Ah, come on! Countries that got us while we were developed, like Botswana, are playing better than us. No one is complaining, including coaches and former players who have the platform. I know of former players who have the right opinions, but I don’t think when they look for an analyst, they want somebody with his own opinion. That’s why I get bored listening to analysts. They say something that suits the interview. We should be having a platform at SABC or SuperSport where somebody can hear that this person is talking football, grassroots football. There are players who are attacked when they are not playing well, there are players who are never attacked when they are not playing well. That’s why I don’t listen to analysts. It’s like they have a script that they read from. People are not honest. We need to be honest, it’s your opinion, ukuthi abantu bayakwata (whether people aren’t happy), it doesn’t matter.